Box Office Round-Up ~ 9/5/23

By: [email protected] on

Few movie stars can maintain the overall box office consistency of Denzel Washington, and the third installment of his Equalizer series is no exception. The Equalizer 3 won Labor Day Weekend with a debut of $34.6 million, making it the second best Labor Day opening ever (behind Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings). The action sequel was able to capitalize on Barbie’s number finally starting to slow down. After becoming the highest-grossing movie of the year at the end of August, Barbie solidified its box office dominance by clearing the $600 million mark with a weekend total of $10.2 million. It’s on track for an overall total of $650 million when all is said and done.

Blue Beetle took third in its third weekend in theaters with $7.1 million, passing $50 million overall domestic. Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story took fourth place in its sophomore weekend with $6.5 million. And in fifth place, Barbenheimer’s other half Oppenheimer cleared $300 million with a weekend gross of $5.7 million, making it the fifth highest grossing movie of 2023.

Notable outside the top five was dark comedy Bottoms, starring Rachel Sennott (Bodies Bodies Bodies) and Ayo Edebiri (The Bear), which expanded from 10 to 705 screens in its second weekend, surpassing predictions with $3 million, which will likely lead to further expansion in the coming weeks. Next week sees the debut of another threequel, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, and The Nun II, the latest in the expanded Conjuring horror franchise.

1.  The Equalizer 3 ($34.6 MM)
Director: Antoine Fuqua (WME)
Writers: Richard Wenk (Gersh)
Cast: Denzel Washington (WME)
         Dakota Fanning (UTA)
         Eugenio Mastrandrea (Tact Media)

2.  Barbie ($10.2 MM)
Director: Greta Gerwig (UTA)
Writers: Greta Gerwig (UTA), Noah Baumbach (UTA)
Cast: Margot Robbie (CAA)
         Ryan Gosling (CAA)
         America Ferrera (CAA)

3. Blue Beetle ($7.1 MM)
Director: Angel Manuel Soto (CAA)
Writers: Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer (WME)
Cast: Xolo Maridueña (UTA)
         Bruna Marquezine (UTA)
         Damián Alcázar (Atlas Artists)

4. Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story ($6.5 MM)
Director: Neill Blomkamp (CAA)
Writers: Jason Hall (UTA), Zach Baylin (CAA), Alex Tse (CAA)
Cast: David Harbour (WME)
         Orlando Bloom (WME)
         Archie Madekwe (UTA)

5.  Oppenheimer ($5.7 MM)
Director: Christopher Nolan (WME)
Writers: Christopher Nolan (WME)
Cast: Cillian Murphy (CAA)
         Emily Blunt (CAA)
         Robert Downey, Jr. (WME)

Source: Box Office Mojo, The Numbers